Sorry if I am asking too many questions...but here is one more after reading the documentation...

In Section 5 - Database Properties - some properties have "dc:", "pv:", and "upnp:" prefix...what does each of this prefix mean? How does it determine where Twonky gets that metadata from? Also, there are some without any prefixes. Some are without any prefixes; is there a special meaning to these as well?

These prefixes are namespaces to better sperarate the different metadata entries used for an item. Most of them are defined by UPnP/DLNA (only the 'pv:' ones are from us). I think that there are differenet namespaces and even items withour a prefix has historical reasons. For Twonky, it basically means: They just need to be that way, otherwise the clients would not know which property holds which data

- 'pv:' is for packetvideo, these are so called "vendor properties". They can be used to build the navigation tree. Also our client SDK uses these properties to get additional informations on the items.

- 'dc:' is for "Dublin Core", this namespace comes from the UPnP specification. It is also used for meta data in different fields outside the UPnP world. (http://dublincore.org/documents/dces)

- 'upnp:' comes also from the UPnP specification.

Thanks to Burkhard from our Berlin office for providing a prompt answer to this question.

Yes. By checking the boxes shown above, the fields will appear in TMM and you can edit them, but the edited text will be added to the TMM database and not the original file. In most cases this should not be a problem, since your device pulls its data from TMM/TMS and not the file directly. Of course someone would have to post a custom tree to use some of these fields.

- Rick

This is ok if you only have one TMM as the only server, but what does soemone with 2 TMS do to tag video files? I'm not adverse to purchasing the TMM but I want to make sure that the edits to the media files are propigated to the local server.

DrStuart wrote:Probably a stupid question, but I'm new to Twonky! Where are the .xml files stored on a Mac as I can't seem to find them in the place stated (resources/views). Any help gratefully received!

I don't have a Mac at home, so I just sent an e-mail to the tree experts in our Berlin office. I'll report back here after I get an answer to your question.

Jerome_TO wrote:This is ok if you only have one TMM as the only server, but what does someone with 2 TMS do to tag video files? I'm not adverse to purchasing the TMM but I want to make sure that the edits to the media files are propigated to the local server.

As long as you're using TMS 5.0 servers, this should not be an issue, because any data which is changed on one server (using TMM) will be instantly viewable by every device on your network (including other PCs).

1. There seems to be a new attribute within container called 'multiview' - does anyone know what that does?

2. I don't really get what the restricted flag does - does anyone know why/how I would use this?

3. I've setup a variation under my videos which is similar to byfolder. Basically I have 4 separate video folders that I like to drill into - under the videos container. Three (3) of the folders are a lot of history (kids growing up, etc.) and I like to have the titles displayed alphabetically in each folder. The other folder is my TV Shows folder and my wife would really like to have this folder sorted by the date added so she can easily review the older shows she hasn't gotten to yet. However, it appears when using the buildon container - all the folders have to have the same sort. So - I figured I would get smart and create another video container called TV Shows and have that sorted by date. I created this video container to have no folders and just display all videos - so it is like a shortcut right to the TV Shows folder. It would work - but the way it is now - it displays all my videos. I would like to just have it display videos from my TV Shows folder. I can't figure out how to just filter that container so it only takes the videos from my TV Shows folder. The good news is that all the videos in that folder do have a unique characteristic (they all have '-0.mpg' as part of its name). So even if you can't filter by folder name, I can filter by the title name. Is there a way to use the filteron attribute to specifiy a specific string? If not - anyone have any ideas on how I can do what I'm looking for?

1. There seems to be a new attribute within container called 'multiview' - does anyone know what that does?

Multiview is an old attribute. It allows you to configure multiple views in one XML file. It was left out of the documentation because it will be removed in TwonkyMedia 5.1. You should avoid this attribute, because it will make your view.xml files more complex, harder to read and incompatible with TwonkyMedia 5.1.

2. I don't really get what the restricted flag does - does anyone know why/how I would use this?

Restricted allows you to control the restricted flag TwonkyMedia uses. UPnP/DLNA containers restricted=1 means the clients are not allowed to add or remove items to or from this container. This feature is not currently implemented because we don't support the addition or removal of items from abitrary containers. Upload is only allowed to the special upload folders. In the future, we will probably allow the client to select a container where they want to place an uploaded item. At this time, the restricted flag will be needed.

3. I've setup a variation under my videos which is similar to byfolder. Basically I have 4 separate video folders that I like to drill into - under the videos container. Three (3) of the folders are a lot of history (kids growing up, etc.) and I like to have the titles displayed alphabetically in each folder. The other folder is my TV Shows folder and my wife would really like to have this folder sorted by the date added so she can easily review the older shows she hasn't gotten to yet. However, it appears when using the buildon container - all the folders have to have the same sort. So - I figured I would get smart and create another video container called TV Shows and have that sorted by date. I created this video container to have no folders and just display all videos - so it is like a shortcut right to the TV Shows folder. It would work - but the way it is now - it displays all my videos. I would like to just have it display videos from my TV Shows folder. I can't figure out how to just filter that container so it only takes the videos from my TV Shows folder. The good news is that all the videos in that folder do have a unique characteristic (they all have '-0.mpg' as part of its name). So even if you can't filter by folder name, I can filter by the title name. Is there a way to use the filteron attribute to specifiy a specific string? If not - anyone have any ideas on how I can do what I'm looking for?

3. filteron limits the items going into a folder those items that have a value in the specified property. For example restricted="dc:title" will only allow items that have a title. filteron does not support filtering on certain values of a property like the customer tries to do it.

I hope this helps you. Please post some of the trees that you've created to this forum, so others can learn from them.

I've sent an email to Christian about the multiview comment above; does this also apply to the default.view.xml file in the proposed 5.1 release? If so, I assume that the changes will mean that I should alter the headings for the main three containers of my replacement default.view.xml as shown in red below. I've just changed my own one and it all seems to work well with 5.0.55 on my ReadyNAS. I've also posted the full revision in the competition section here

When I started customizing the trees - I was making changes in the default.view (which I know is not a good idea - but was having trouble using a separate one at first). I was concerned after eliminating all the "multiview" tags. Once I did that, other views started to invade my specific view. I've since successfully created a separate custom view file and didn't use the multiview tag. All works just fine!

In the spirit of sharing, I've attached my custom nav tree. Unlike most of the other submissions which involve music, my changes are based mostly for photos and videos so they can be easily used by my wife and kids.

My theory here is keep it as simple as possible and limit options. Especially when it comes to photos where the dates on the files are almost never right!

So basically I cut out a level and after selecting photos or videos - you go right to the detail folders. Also - my wife asked that the TV Shows folder be sorted by date and the other videos by sorted alphabetically. Since you can't specifiy different sorts within a folder list used with the buildon tag, I have two "Video" folders. The default, which is sorted alphabetically and another sorted by date. I only included the YouTube capability on the default video. Now - if I can only get YouTube to play the favorites from my YouTube userid - I'll be set. Not sure why that isn't working!

I have also had my fight with sorting by release year.From what I tried it seams that sorting by date is only possible if you use buildon='dc:date[1:4]' in the container. If buildon is e.g. 'upnp:album' Twonky just does not want to sort by date.

Maybe my workaround is feasible for you also:

I sort by artist first, then by year and finally by Album. One step more then really required because most artists release 1 album per year at maximum.As a shortcut I have put a node that goes directly to the Album, ignoring the year.

Thanks for that, but I'd already tried that, and that brings an unwanted layer of navigation in, which first presents you with a list of years, which you then have to guess what album is under which year. What I want to achieve is something so simple you could do it with your old record collection on a shelf with no need for advanced processing skills - have my albums in artist order and then in release order within the artist. Can't be that hard to do if a spotty teenager could do it on a shelf

Looking at the documentation which says of sortcriteria "Used to define the default sort order for the children of this container.", then it plainly isn't working as documented and needs to be fixed, I tried dc:date at all levels and it made no differerence.

I have however found a compromise that suits my requirement to be able to pick out music chronologically and that is this container...<container name='allname' sortcriteria='+dc:date[1:4],+upnp:originalTrackNumber' createClass='object.item.audioItem.musicTrack' class='object.container' />

adding this in the same container as my albums gives me each album alphabetically OR all the songs in album release and track within the album order. Not ideal but close enough for now.

But in the long term, sortcriteria needs to be fixed to actually sort on the fields you want - if somebody wouldn't mind looking at that

Someone asked me about that and I also tried a few variants without success. In the end, I realised that it's not suitable for me since my music collection has a lot of DJ compilations which have many dates on the one album. This would mean that the control point would show an album (and cover) for each group of tracks. Other interesting things would be like Beatles 1967-1970 (The Blue Album); if the tracks were dated correctly, this would show as four albums. It would be up to the user to sort their date tags out which is why I can't see it being adopted by all. That said, it would be nice if there was a way to do it.

Another thing I tried (only briefly) was to see if there was a way to group recently added/played stuff into groups of albums, as what you really want to see are recently added albums and recently played albums as opposed to just a big list of tracks; I must look at that again and spend a bit more time trying to get it to work properly (from memory, I couldn't limit the list and it thus tried to list all the albums on my NAS).

I must admit I was thinking along the lines of the fact that an "album" is simply a collection of files with the same value for a specific tag and there was no guarantee any other tag would have consistent properties.

However we DO have a precedent for picking an album attribute from a group of potentially inconsistent ones, and that is for album art which uses the first object in the container, a similar trick could be used perhaps to sort albums by an attribute. Not ideal in every case but perfect for original studio albums.

Sadly I'm thinking my solution will be to add the year of release into the Album Title, again not brilliant but does solve my problem.

At the moment I came across this thread and the instructions for creating Your Own Custom Navigation Tree, the 5.1 release could already be downloaded. And so so I'm trying to customize the tree within 5.1 using the manual given for 5.0.However, i came across a few small but important differences between de default trees in 5.0 and 5.1Twonky, Is there going to be a new manual for 5.1?

For instance, I see a new element pv:numberOfThisDisc (or something similar, I'm writing this from memory) based on which one should be able to sort the tracks within a container. Usually followed by the actual track number. So the result for a double album would be that the tracks are shown in the following order:Disc#/track#:1/11/21/31/41/51/62/12/22/32/42/52/6

But! The actual order as shown in the Kinsky desktop is:Disc#/track#:1/12/11/22/22/31/3etc etc (note the random order of two tracks having the same track number but a different disc number, it seems they are sorted alphabetically)

Apparently pv:numberOfThisDisc doesn't do a thing! Maybe the "pv" stands for PacketVideo? One possible reason I could think of (however far fetched it may seem) is that I'm working with a trial version.Could it be that after I've paid for a license key, the pv thingy will actually start functioning as it should?Since my trial period is almost at an end, I will probably have to test this assumption in the very near future. Update, one day later: I have now paid for a license key but to no avail. the pv:numberOfThisDisc still doesn't do a thing

By the way, I'm rather surprised there are (almost) no posts about either the 5.1 release or, more specifically, the building of personalized trees in 5.1. I can't be the only one trying this, can I? Or am I missing something? Is there a seperate thread for this?After all the work done (for trees in 5.0) by people such as Briain, it seems inconceivable that the new release does not open up a host of new issues. And new posts, as a matter of consequence.

I read somewhere else in a post on this forum that 5.1 might be unsupported but I find that very hard to believe, since it is a product one has to pay for.

Any reactions on all or some of the above will be very much appreciated!! Anybody? Twonky??

Hans

Last edited by hvaleton on Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

That's very interesting about the disk numbers; it would be good if the next version of 5.1 recognised the disk set. I'll wait until 5.1.1 or 5.2 (or whatever the next one is) then look at it again. Another change from 5.0 to 5.1 that you should be aware of is that dc:date[4:1] now needs changing to pv:year.

I have at least four 5.1 trees (I think they're in the 5.1 RC or beta sections), however, whilst they did work with the 5.1 beta's, they don't work with the later 5.1RCâ€™s. As I can't get the now-released version of 5.1 to even work on my ReadyNAS, and since the RC trees don't work with the final version, and since the UPnP sort order doesn't work on the menu, there's no point in me looking at 5.1 (I'm sticking with 5.0.68 as that works really well).

I did manage to get a tree to work by totally replacing the default one - it needs the first section changed to look more like the new default one - though it wasn't that great due to the sort order thing, and it meant restricting things to only one view. My concern is that it all changes again for 5.2, meaning that theyâ€™ll likely all need redone again. I've already had to change them from 5.0 to work with 5.1 beta and I'm not sure I want to do that all again without some indication that the format has been finally agreed upon (and that the sort order has been restored) so I'm afraid I've given up on 5.1 and am waiting to hear see what happens over the next few months; as soon as the next one's out, I'll try to get it going and build trees for it.

I'm looking forward to the next release as it would be just great to be able to use the new database structure and the exciting new features designed into 5.1

By the way, I'm rather surprised there are (almost) no posts about either the 5.1 release or, more specifically, the building of personalized trees in 5.1. I can't be the only one trying this, can I? Or am I missing something? Is there a seperate thread for this?After all the work done (for trees in 5.0) by people such as Briain, it seems inconceivable that the new release does not open up a host of new issues. And new posts, as a matter of consequence.

Well, I AM NOT SURPRISED, I know many people (including me) who keep the version 4.x and who have even not bothered moving to a version 5.x for 3 reasons:

1- The many different problems experienced by users who moved to releases 5.x

2- Many people were satisfied with the simple navigation tree builder that was existing prior to version 5.0 and don't want to upgrade to 5.x to avoid the complexity and spending hours on this. Seems sensible to me. I am a former developer but frankly, I do not want to spend time creating the XML definitions that would do what I need. I have other pleasures.Reading the many reactions in this forum and other forums (just had a discussion 5' ago in a French forum), I believe the vast majority of users just don't want to mess with XML and have probably never heard this acronym (XML)...

3- Many people were relying on the installer utilities that former Twonkyvision used to provide and maintain to install TMS on many NAS'. As these are not provided anymore, I think that non-technical users are stuck with their former TMS version (even if some utilities exist on the Web to install TMS on some NAS').

We increased the complexity for normal average users, that's a fact.

My personal view....I think above points disconnected normal average users from TMS new releases and possibly other new PV/Twonky products....

Not sure if this applies under custom navigation trees but, i am trying to sort the view of my Videos. I would like to adjust the Sort By Folder view.

The problem i have is at the moment, Twonky shows only the folders that have media (video) files in them, cutting out the path it took to get there. Is it possible to modify it so it shows me the whole path

I drew up a diagram on how i would like to view it in my post here:http://www.twonkyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7069#p26159

Would modifying the default.view.xml help me with this problem? All i want to do is make the Sort by Folder on Videos go up a few levels in the Tree, starting from the Root Folders those files originate from.

Any status on DLNA-1804, the custom nav tree document for Version 5.1 of the server? I upgraded to 5.1.2 today, but was not able to make my custom view work from 5.0.61. There appear to be several key changes and without the doc, I was forced to return to 5.0.61.

Thanks for the reminder. I checked and work on this ticket was completed on 11/25. Unfortunately, no one told me about it.

Christian posted a document online but it's 189 pages long and I don't think all of it applies to this topic. To prevent any confusion, I'd like to only post the sections that are relevant here. I'm sending a message to Christian now to get this. As soon as I hear back, I'll post it here. He's out until 1/4, so it probably won't occur until after that.

-Group By Extension (i.e. avi, mp4, mkv, etc) ----recently added for that extension (based on time/date on disk) ----last viewed for that extension----"Album" grouping folder------------All Albums listed------------All albums broken down via "ABC" lettering------------Year, then albums in that year----"Genre" grouping folder------------All genres listed, then items for those genres------------All genres listed, then year for video, then the videos themselves------------All years listed, then the genre, then the videos

I've been using the Custom Navigation Trees with version 5.0.61 and am very happy how they are implemented. I've been looking forward to upgrading to 5.1.2. After getting the document changes for the nav trees, I've been trying and trying for over a week to replicate how my custom trees work in 5.0.61 and it just doesn't work. There are three critical areas where it appears that the changes made in 5.1.2 have eliminated functionality that was there in 5.0.61.

1. I can't change the initial sort of Music, Photos, Videos. No matter what I try, it doesn't move. I want Videos, Photos, Music.

2. I created a fourth type called "Videos By Date" because my wife wanted to access videos sorted by most recent, while the rest of the family wanted it alphabetically. I can't seem to replicate this functionality in 5.1.2. The following is a screen print from 5.0.61 which shows the functionality working:

Main Media Browser Menu

Twonky1.PNG (21.67 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

3. We keep our videos in various folders (TV, Family, Misc, etc.). I don't need all the default breakouts that Twonky offers, and to eliminate an extra level, I was able to show my various video folders immediately after clicking on "Videos", instead of having to click on "Videos" and then on "By Folder". I can't seem to replicate this functionality in 5.1.2 either. The following is a screen print from 5.0.61 which shows the functionality working:

First level within Videos

Twonky2.PNG (25.19 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Here it is again, but under the "Videos By Date" Menu choice (note that YouTube is not there because I removed the online services portion from the Videos By Date code:

First level within Videos By Date

Twonky3.PNG (25.13 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Since I can only attach 3 files to a post, please see the next post which will have the following files:

5.0.61.lowcustom.view.xml - this is the original custom file for 5.0.61. I made no changes to the default.view.xml that was shipped with 5.0.61 so this file has everything.

5.1.2.lowcustom.view.xml - this is the new custom file for 5.1.2 that just does the links to the view-definitions.xml file.

view-definitions.xml - this is the file that contains the customizations I've made. Other than changing the sort order (or trying to) for Music, there are no changes to this file except in the Video section as well as an added video by date section.

Perhaps someone has an idea? Or did I hit upon several bugs?

Please note that in my 5.1.2.lowcustom.view.xml, I don't have the "Videos" portion of the code exactly as I would think it should work for my folders because if I do, then I don't get any videos to show. So instead I added another line "<link groupid='video/myfolders' /> which would in theory bring my folder up to the first level in addition to the "By Folders" line. Although this doesn't work.

Based on this, I'm not upgrading to 5.1.2 because I'm losing key functionality and I'm really disappointed.

Please HELP!!!! Rick - are you able to forward to a developer to look at as well?

Per the last post, attached please find the three files I noted in the prior post.

5.0.61.lowcustom.view.xml - this is the original custom file for 5.0.61. I made no changes to the default.view.xml that was shipped with 5.0.61 so this file has everything.

5.1.2.lowcustom.view.xml - this is the new custom file for 5.1.2 that just does the links to the view-definitions.xml file.

view-definitions.xml - this is the file that contains the customizations I've made. Other than changing the sort order (or trying to) for Music, there are no changes to this file except in the Video section as well as an added video by date section.

In order to retain customtree's sort order populated to my device, I need to adjust client.db with attribute XM:IGNORESORT for the specific entries. Atleast my NP2x00 streamiums here, request an alphabetic sort-order otherwise.

Additionally, adding a "sortcriteria" tag to the root-container-defs seems to be helpful.Looks like "navtree"-tags are not inherited down to the child-containers.

I have similar configuartion (Philips NP2900 and NP2500), Twonky 5.1 on WD MyBook World Edition 1TB (white light).And the same problem: the Streamiums only show the MP3s in Alphbetic order (only the 'iPhone style' sorts correctly, but there I miss a folder structure, which I require).

Could you please explain in a little more detail what you mean with the above, particularly:

"... additionally, adding a "sortcriteria" tag to the root-container-defs seems to be helpful.Looks like "navtree"-tags are not inherited down to the child-containers..."

How do I do this / where has the code you provide above have to be inserted?

I am currently fighting with an enhanced Album view in the Music section. I wanted to have and index withABCDEF...etc

And entering the next level to see the Album available and the next level is showing the tracks. So far I was able to show the ABC, DEF, etc but inside there were all tracks from all Album included in the section.In principle I did the same with my Artist view and there it worked. I was trying already several combinations but didn'tsucceded. All other adjustments I did so far worked smoothly but with the Album I am struggeling.Any suggestions?

Below is an alternative version based upon what I use in my own tree. It's the same as the above one, but in an addition, it also has a '-Browse All'- container above the ABC, DEF, GHI containers. This gives you both features in the one tree (browse all is the same as the original ungrouped Twonky container) and is great when using a large screen control point.

Shown below is a picture of where the -Browse All- fits in. In the pictured version, you can see that alpha-grouping is set to [1], but in both of the above examples, I've changed it to [3] (ABC, DEF etc).

Hope that helpsBri

Last edited by Briain on Thu Mar 25, 2010 10:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I resently moved from a MaxtorSharedStorage II with Twonky 4.4.18 to an Acer H340 WHS with Twonky 5.1.1 and with the manual configuration of the navigation tree I was able to have the same customized view as I had before.My wife was already complaining why she is not finding the media at the same place where it was before

monty68 wrote:Hi there, I have tried to follow as best as I can how to create custom views with little success.

Can anyone help, all I want to be able to do is view my videos by Genre (I'm using Twonky Server 5.1.3 on a QNAP TS-410)

Thanks In Advance

I managed this not via the customer views as I have mpg and TS files where I can't store a header into the file to add a genre. I created folders for each genre and copied the files into the relevant folder.When viewing the videos by folder it is showing me the 'genre' and inside the different files. with the custom views I deleted all other views for the videos and just go with the view by folder.

Thanks for that, I have considered that approach but I am converting my 2500+ DVD collection to mpg4and by using the Mp3tag program I am adding all the correct tags for genre, dates and cover art.

Be nice to get Twonky to display using the genre tags, be even nicer if TMM could read informationfrom XML files created by My Movies and thumbnails from seperate image files but guess thatsanother story and another thread